Daily Times

The state of Hawaii, with a population of 1.4 million, consists of four major islands and two small islands. Honolulu, the capital and Hawaii’s largest city, is located on the island of Oahu.

I have been going to Hawaii since 1992 and have visited all six islands. The island that I have visited the most is Oahu. So when another opportunity came up to visit Honolulu, I grabbed it immediately and booked flights.

There were going to be two days of business meetings and four days of vacation.

On the sidelines of the business meetings, I took some time to go past the Iolani Palace, which hearkens back to the era when Hawaii was a royal kingdom. Nearby was the Supreme Court building with the king’s statue and across the street was the Territorial building. All three had a unique architecture that I have not observed in other parts of the state.

Since we were staying at Waikiki, we got to check out a few of the many fine restaurants that are located there. Noi features fine Thai cuisine, Morimoto serves Japanese cuisine with flourish and Hula Grill offers local cuisine with a flair that is enhanced with incredible sunset views of the sea if you come for dinner. Over at the Ala Moana shopping centre, we tasted Vietnamese dishes at Mama Pho. Many other types of food are offered at the open-air mall which has been upgraded and remodelled since we were last there.

There’s something about Hawaii that even something as basic as pizza tastes so much better than on the mainland US. So, as on all prior visits, we had lunch one day at the California Pizza Kitchen.

In terms of fun activities, it was hard to figure out what to do on this trip. There were the catamaran boat rides, the harbour cruises, and the helicopter rides. There was Pearl Harbour with all that history, Hanauma Bay, world famous for its snorkelling, the secret beach on the way to Hanauma Bay where the closing scene in that all-time classic movie, From Here to Eternity, was filmed. Further away was the Polynesian Cultural Centre where they put up amazing shows. And not too far away was the North Shore where the surf was very active and a joy to behold.

Since we were staying at Waikiki, we got to check out a few of the many fine restaurants that are located there. Noi features fine Thai cuisine, Morimoto serves Japanese cuisine with flourish and Hula Grill offers local cuisine with a flair that is enhanced with incredible sunset views of the sea if you come for dinner

We had done each and every one of these activities multiple times. So this time we thought we would just hang around Waikiki beach and watch the waves hitting the sand on the beach, read a book, and walk barefoot in the sand. But the weather was unusually hot after 10 am and it stayed that way until 4 pm.

Knowing that in advance we had booked a guided tour of the Shangri La museum which featured Islamic art and architecture. We had come to know it during our last visit but had been unable to visit it since advance bookings were required. It was set in a house owned by Doris Duke, a billionaire tobacco heiress.

The day came for visiting the museum. We got in a cab and gave the driver our destination. She was not familiar with it. I was prepared for this moment since I had mentioned the museum to a few other people living on the island and none were familiar with it. It must be an exotic destination. So we gave her the street address.

Google maps directed her to the house. But there was no sign or obvious way of opening the gate. We were puzzled. Thankfully our driver spotted two women who were about to walk past the cab.

We asked them for guidance. The older of the two told us that we were in the right destination but would not be able to get in since we had to be on a bus tour that originated at the Honolulu Museum of Art several miles away. There was no time to go back and board the bus.

She called the museum to see if they might make an exception and was told no. We were in a quandary. Then a car appeared that was intending to go inside the gate. The driver was a guide to the museum but she would not let us go inside with her because of the strict rules. That gate could have been part of the Berlin Wall. I got a little worked up.

And then something amazing happened. The first woman offered to drive us to the main museum to sort things out. Thus we experienced firsthand the kindness of strangers.

The manager at the museum told us we had not read the terms and conditions carefully. You could not show up at Shangri La. So we were at fault. Yes, we were but this was one of seven conditions written in fine print on the tickets.

As a concession, she gave us tickets to tour the art museum and put our names on the standby list for the two remaining tours of Shangri La. We used the time to check out the collections in the main museum. They included art and artefacts from India, Islamic art, and paintings by renowned artists such as Monet, Picasso and Gloria O’Keefe.

Our standby seating for Shangri La failed to clear and we returned to Waikiki. This was the first time we had encountered George Orwell in the Aloha State. Will we make a third attempt to see the museum? I doubt it.

There was no time to book any formal shows in Waikiki’s concert halls this time but we were able to catch the informal ones featuring dance and music in an open air setting at the Royal Hawaiian Centre. We also checked out the all new International Market which features all the major international brands. These have taken the place of the traditional stalls that used to be here and which honestly I liked better because they were unique to Hawaii.

While we were window shopping, we also stopped by the Tesla store where the three major models (S, X and 3) were on display. Hawaii has the highest electric rates in the US but electric cars are still a good deal since gasoline prices are equally high.

Late one morning we thought of walking over to the Zoo. It was just fifteen minutes away. But the heat was so intense that we gave up, realizing that the animals would be just as listless as the visitors.

The seven days on Blue Hawaii just flew by. Before we knew it, we were flying home over the Blue Ocean.

The writer can be reached at ahmadfaruqui@gmail.com. He Tweets at @AhmadFaruqui